Harrington, Jeff 2014The Society of Fire Protection Engineers has recently published its fifth edition of the SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering. The new edition has expanded to three volumes, contains 17 new chapters, and is available in an electronic format for the first time! According to the SFPE website, “This book provides thorough treatment of the current best practices in fire protection engineering and performance‐based fire safety. Over 130 eminent fire engineers and researchers contributed chapters to the book, representing universities and professional organizations around the world. It remains the indispensable source for reliable coverage of fire safety engineering fundamentals, fire dynamics, hazard calculations, fire risk analysis, modeling and more.”

 Here at Harrington Group, we are particularly excited about the new edition because our very own Jeff Harrington co-authored one of the 17 new chapters in the Handbook. Chapter 45 – Carbon Dioxide Systems – provides information about the design and safe use of carbon dioxide in fire extinguishing systems and is intended to supplement and clarify some of the critical concepts addressed by the current standards used in the design of these systems. Jeff wrote the chapter with Joseph A. Senecal, another leading expert in the fire protection engineering industry.

More highlights of the new edition of the Handbook include:

  • Step‐by‐step equations that explain engineering calculations
  • Comprehensive revision of the coverage of human behavior in fire, including several new chapters on egress system design, occupant evacuation scenarios, combustion toxicity, and data for human behavior analysis
  • Revised fundamental chapters for a stronger sense of context
  • Recent advances in fire resistance design
  • Addition of new chapters on industrial fire protection, including vapor clouds, effects of thermal radiation on people, BLEVEs, dust explosions, and gas and vapor explosions.
  • New chapters on fire load density, curtain walls, wildland fires, and vehicle tunnels
  • Essential reference appendices on conversion factors, thermophysical property data, fuel properties and combustion data, configuration factors, and piping properties

The fifth edition of the SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering can be purchased on the Springer website. If you are a member of SFPE, be sure to login to the SFPE website to get your members-only discount code.